I believe only male crickets chirp... you know, to attract a female... I had a cricket problem. then I let my chickens raid the backyard. they've managed to supress the problem considerably.

I think you're right about only the males chirping. Still, with all these crickets, there must be some males around.

Wish we could have chickens here. I'd have to set up air-conditioning in their coop, though. We get 120 degree plus summers in this area.

huh? where are you? I'm near Phoenix (Peoria) and my chickens were ok all summer. they just drink a lot. You can also set out trays with water and they sit in them to cool off. or put soda bottles with ice in them for them to cool off. I have friends that have chickens and as long as they get plenty of shade, they do fine.

We're in Mohave Co., not too far from Lake Havasu. We get a little hotter than you do in Phoenix, but not much. People nearby that have chickens usually have tall trees for shade, which is something we don't have here. Perhaps a little improvising with shade cloth, plastic patio panels, or something similar is called for.

I was intentionally exaggerating when I said I'd have to set up a/c for them, but it seems they would have to have some method of cooling. I'll look into it more, as we would like to have a few hens for the eggs.

it sounds to me though that you have some sort of grasshopper problem because now that I think of it, I don't think crickets do much damage to vegetation. I mean our backyard was full of them but that had no effect on my garden.

Crickets do some strange things sometimes. I caught them in the act of munching holes in some of my agaves, so they certainly could damage a garden if they figured out it was food.

I'll see if I can catch one of these little guys and post a picture of it. Hopefully someone can help me identify it. They look like crickets to me, but I can't get over the fact that they're completely silent.